Rant #2,435: King of Pain

Well, I was sick yesterday, and I am still sick, although the final conclusions about what I have aren't in yet.

What I have is either a kidney stone or an infection, one or the other--or both.

I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon after a morning where I do believe I really was sick with fever, but it was quieted with two aspirin.

I managed to make it through the first part of the workday, and at lunch time, I went to the doctor.

He did the usual tests, asked me about my problem, took a urine sample, and found that there was a trace amount of blood in the urine.

He than sent me on an odyssey of getting blood work and sonogram tests to determine exactly what is ailing me.

The blood test was done one, two, three, but the other test posed a problem. I wanted it to get it done right then and there, but there is some prep involved, namely that you have to drink 24 ounces of water in about an hour to 90 minutes and be able to hold it in while the sonogram is performed.

I had the water on me in my bag, but they could not fit me in on that day, even for a late appointment, so I had to take one today, in the middle of the day.

I hate to drink water, but I do drink water when I am at work, or at least seltzer. No seltzer this time; I have to drink water.

The only water I can stomach is ice cold water, so I froze up some bottles, and by 4:15--when I am going to leave work to get this done--I will be drunk on water, get this thing done, and then wait for the results from the doctor.

Nobody hopes for an infection, but in this case, I am hoping for that over a stone. I have had a stone in the past, and it can be the most painful thing anybody can go through. It was for me, until I passed it--at work, believe it or not.

The doctor also gave me a prescription for a pill to combat this if it is an infection. It is a horse pill, so to speak, but let me tell you, I had the best sleep I have had in several days last night, so if nothing else, it helped my sleep. I have to take this twice a day for 10 days, and the next time I take it will be around 6:30 a.m.

So let's see what happens; I can tell you that I feel much better today than yesterday at this time, so the jury is out as to what I have.

Now, on to the next pain in my (based on my condition, I will let you fill that in):

The newspapers that we get were delivered water free yesterday, double bagged as I have asked them to be, protected from the water sprouted out by the sprinkler.

What happened is that I complained again on Monday about the paper not being double bagged, and the operator went through the same machinations as he/she has been doing for weeks, and I once again got credit for the newspaper for that day.

As I had asked last week, I wanted to speak to the district manager, and I finally did on Monday morning.

He said that the problem was that these deliverers pay for their own bags, and thus, when they have to use an extra bag, it costs them money, so they hesitate using them except in extreme conditions.

Look, this is all baloney, you know it as well as I do; do you want to deliver a wet newspaper where you are going to get complaints, or do you want to deliver a perfectly readable newspaper? I would think that the choice is obvious, but I guess it isn't.

Look, when I delivered the New York Times and The New York Post during the mid-1990s, admittedly, we did not pay for our bags.

But even if we did, if the customer requested their delivery to be double bagged, I did it, and plenty of customers asked for their newspaper to be delivered this way.

Remember, the customer is always right, even when they are wrong.

The district manager told me he would talk with the carrier--who he claimed was the best one that he had, and compared to our previous deliverer, who half the time didn't deliver the newspaper, he was a virtual Newspaper Deliverer Hall of Famer--and that if I had any further complaints, to contact him directly at the number that I called to get him this time.

OK, I am satisfied for now, but as I told him, the next time the newspapers are wet--and there will be a next time--he would hear from me. I thanked him and that was that.

This is an interesting time for me. I have both a real pain in my body and an exterior pain, both of which aren't going away anytime soon.

Wish me luck as I deal with both at the same time.

Heck, I really don't know at times which is worse.